Love of Christ Produces Good Fruit

We are living in an irrational world!!! People will be angry with us, not because we did anything to them, but because we are different from them or because we have something they want.

 
They will be angry at us because they saw someone else angry with us, even without knowing the reason.

They will not ask you about what you did because you didn't do anything they could name; you are just different from them.

 
If their friend is angry with you, they will be angry with you too, even if they don't know the reason.

This seems irrational and unbelievable, but remember the devil did the same thing with God in heaven. He was jealous, which made him angry at God because God had what the devil wanted. He wanted to overthrow God, take what he had, and ruin Him.

It sounds fantastical that the devil would not recognize that the very God who created Him would be powerful enough to destroy him with the breath of His mouth.

Often, people will concoct a reason to dislike others merely because they have something the angry person wants. They not only want what the other person has they don't want the other person to have it.

 
Envy is wanting what someone else has, and jealousy is not wanting them to have it, both are monstrous sins against God. Satan was deeply invested in these character flaws and influences people to indulge in them too.

 
The devil will convince the jealous, angry person that they have a good reason, but the reason is irrational and petty every time.

 
Those who love Jesus Christ might briefly struggle with feelings of envy or jealousy, but they do not live a lifestyle of it. The Holy Spirit reminds them of their heart condition, and they repent to be cleansed.

 
A true child of God changed by Christ into a new creation lives a lifestyle of Love, the first fruit of the Spirit of Christ. All the other fruit flows from that Love.

 
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant.
5 It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered,
6 it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails; ............."